Hebrews 9
:
Christ’s death is a better sacrifice

v23 So animals’ blood was necessary to make those things
clean and right. They were copies of the true and proper things that are in
*heaven. But the proper things in *heaven need better *sacrifices than that to
make them clean and right. v24 Christ did not go into a Most *Holy Room
that people had made on earth. A place like that is only a copy of the place in
*heaven. He went into *heaven itself. And now he is present with God and he
speaks to God on our behalf.

v25 The *chief *priest here on earth goes into the Most *Holy
Room year after year. He takes an animal’s blood to offer there each time, not
his own blood. But Christ did not go into *heaven to offer himself to God again
and again. v26 He did not need to die again and again since the world
began. Instead, he has appeared once, for all time. He has come now, when the
world is near its end. He came to remove completely all the wrong things that
we do. He died as a *sacrifice for us. v27 God has chosen that every
person must die once. After death, God will decide what is fair for that
person. v28 So Christ also died and he offered himself once. He did this
to take away wrong things for many people. And Christ will return to earth a
second time, but not to take away wrong things. He will come to save those
people who are waiting for him.

Chapter 10

v1 Moses’ rules are only like a shadow of the good things
that will come. The rules do not show what those good things are really like.
The rules say that the *priest must continue to offer the same *sacrifices for
the people, year after year. The people bring their *sacrifices when they come
to *worship God. So, people will never be completely good and clean because of
those rules. v2 If the rules could do that, the *priests would have
stopped offering *sacrifices. The people would have become completely good and
clean once, for all time. They would have become clean like that when they came
to *worship God the first time. So they would not still think that they had
done wrong things. v3 But those *sacrifices cause people to remember,
year after year, the wrong things that they have done. v4 It is
impossible for the blood of male cows and of goats to take away wrong things. v5
So, when Christ came into the world, he spoke to God like this:

‘You do not want
gifts and *sacrifices of animals,

but you have prepared a body for me.

v6 The
whole animals that they burn

do not make you happy.

The *sacrifices
for what people have done wrong

do not make you happy.

v7 Then I
spoke again: “Here I am, God.

I have come to do what you want.

That is what the book of your rules says about me.” ‘

[Psalm 40:6-8]

v8 So Christ had said first: ‘You do not want gifts and
*sacrifices of animals. You do not want the whole animals that they burn. You
do not want *sacrifices for what people have done wrong. These things do not
make you happy.’ But Moses’ rules said that these *sacrifices were necessary. v9
Then Christ spoke again: ‘Here I am. I have come to do what you want’, he said.
So God takes away the old *sacrifices and he puts Christ’s *sacrifice in their
place. v10 God wants to make us completely good and clean. And he has
done that because of Jesus Christ’s *sacrifice. Christ offered his own body
once, for all time, when he died.

v11 Every day, the *priests stand and they do their work.
They offer the same *sacrifices to God again and again. But those *sacrifices
can never take away the wrong things that people have done. v12 This
*priest, Jesus Christ, offered one *sacrifice for wrong things, for all time.
Then he sat down at God’s right side. v13 Since that time, he waits for
God to make an end to his enemies. God will make Christ’s enemies like a place
for him to rest his feet. v14 As a result of one *sacrifice, Christ has
made his people completely right with God always. God is making those people
completely separate from everything that is bad.

v15 God’s Spirit, who is completely good, also shows us
about these things. He shows us that these things are true. He says this first:

v16 ‘This
is what I will agree with them

after that time, the *Lord says.

I will put my
rules deep inside them.

I will write my rules on their minds.’

[Jeremiah 31:33]

v17 Then he continues to speak:

‘I will not
continue to remember

the wrong things and the bad things

that they have
done.’

[Jeremiah 31:34]

v18 So when God has *forgiven these wrong things, no more
*sacrifices are necessary.